Minecraft has been one of the world’s most popular games since its release in 2009. In 2010, dungeons were added to the world generation list.

To be extra clear, this game isn’t focused on the newer dungeon crawler game Minecraft Dungeons, but rather on the treasure-filled rooms made of mossy cobblestone. Inside these dungeons are items that are very difficult to find elsewhere, making them very valuable and exciting to find.

Over the years there have been many methods that worked, but these 3 are the tried and true methods that tons of players use.

Falling Sand Method

This method works in all versions of Minecraft, making it one of the surefire ways of finding dungeons. Basically, it involves using the mechanics of newly generated falling sand to find where surface dungeons are spawned.

When you load up the game, the first step is to find a desert. Dungeons are placed after the generation of normal terrain, and sometimes they can be generated towards the surface of a desert.

Well, since sand is affected by gravity, the hollow area of the dungeon will destroy the blocks below the sand, causing it to fall into the dungeon. You want to look for a 5x5 hole in the ground in any desert. If you find a hole like this, simply dig the sand away and see if any mossy cobblestone is nearby. This along with chests or a spawner is a surefire way to know you’ve located a dungeon.

It’s a good practice to check for these holes in every desert you explore, and eventually you’ll be able to spot them very quickly.

Audio Method

Another method that works on all versions to use audio to find dungeons. This works best with stereo speakers or headphones, but even a simple phone speaker could work if you’re on Pocket Edition.

Every dungeon has a spawner in the center of it, causing hordes of zombies, spiders, or skeletons to spawn. Since dungeons are often closed off, this will make it so the spawned mobs are stuck in the dungeon, and they make a ton of noise.

As you explore anywhere in the world, always be listening for a large collection of mobs. Use your stereo speakers or headphones to the direction of the sound, and keep digging until you find one. They’re often on a higher or lower level than you, so if you can’t find one based on direction then try digging up or down.

Dungeon Finder

The last method on here is one that involves using an external website. Dungeon Finder by Chunkbase is a website that allows you to input a seed on both Java and Bedrock, and it tells you where every dungeon in your world is.

On their website they say it’s not 100% accurate, but tons of people have stated that it works for them. Its effectiveness varies based on the version of the game, but it’s still a great way to find dungeons that otherwise would go unfound.

You can use this on your friends' worlds and surprise them with how good you are at finding dungeons for them, or just use it on a singleplayer world and get all those valuable resources.